Melissa Román Burch, Formerly of Lendlease Development | Claremont Hall in New York City | The History of Highrises
Courtesy of Lendlease Development
The History of Highrises
On today’s podcast, we sit down with Melissa Román Burch to learn more about her project with Lendlease Development, Claremont Hall. Located in the academic acropolis of New York City, Claremont Hall is a mixed-use building with modern neo-gothic architecture and sweeping views of the Hudson River. We also dive into some of Melissa’s other developments such as the Atlantic Yards (renamed Pacific Park) and 1 Java Street.
Melissa believes that development is about people and to be innovative we have to get curious and question fundamental assumptions. We ask the question of how to expand in a dense urban environment such as New York City and touch on topics of housing access and supply. We also talk about the importance of strategic partnerships with development, equity, and construction firms, as well as technology firms that have a growing interest in housing issues.
Lendlease Development partnered with Union Theological Seminary to begin its work on Claremont Hall in June of 2020, right in the early stages of the pandemic. In an attempt to creatively renew the aging infrastructure on the 100-year old campus, Union sought out a developer to help them tap into their New York City air rights.
Tune in to today’s episode to learn more about unique New York City construction phenomenons and the community-centered partners who are bringing these projects to life.
“This project weaves together the old and the new, which I think is quite interesting. This is a historic campus, but the new tower seamlessly integrates with that campus through the architecture of its gothic collegiate language that Robert A.M. Stern is so well known for and so skilled in bringing. I think, in particular, their firm, and the way that we thought about the project is really bridging the past and the present. So borrowing the language of the Neogothic campus, but in a way that is suitable for modern living.”
Courtesy of Lendlease Development
About Melissa Román Burch
Melissa is the Chief Operating Officer of the New York City Economic Development Authority, the most prominent economic development agency in the country. Previously, Melissa was the Executive General Manager at LendLease, where she started the development business unit for this Australian property giant. She started her career in development at Forest City Ratner. Before development, she worked in investment banking at Merrill Lynch. She is a graduate of Harvard Business School and Harvard College.
Episode Timestamps
2:26 – The history of the high rise residential building in New York City.
7:32 – Tell us about what you learned working with MaryAnne Gilmartin, particularly on the Pacific Park and Atlantic Yards projects.
17:23 – What have your thoughts been over the course of working on such amazing projects like the ones you mentioned?
20:39 – The Claremont Hall project is located in Upper Manhattan next to Columbia University and on the campus of the Union Theological Seminary. Tell us about this context and the challenges and opportunities of the site itself.
25:17 – This partnership between Lendlease and Union Theological Seminary, help our listeners understand what a partnership like that means from a legal, financial, and operational perspective.
34:31 – Walk through the project for listeners. Describe what they would be seeing along the way in terms of the finishes and the design.
38:02 – Tell us about One Java Street. What did you learn about establishing relationships and working with stakeholders to create partnerships?
44:43 – Could you talk about your career at the various firms and the various institutions that you have volunteered your time with? What does housing access mean to you? Where do you see that kind of moving forward for New York City?
50:27 – Help me understand what you see as the mission of Lendlease and of the Claremont Hall Project.
Additional Resources
Connect with Melissa Román Burch:
Courtesy of Lendlease Development
About your host:
Atif Qadir is the Founder & CEO of Commonplace, a technology company making it easy for commercial real estate professionals to find and use the $100B of real estate incentives given out every year in the US.
His work has been covered by Technology Review, The Real Deal, Commercial Observer, and Propmodo. He’s also a frequent speaker on the future of buildings and cities on popular industry podcasts and at conferences, including this past year at the Commercial Observer National DEI Conference, Yale AREA Conference, Columbia Real Estate Symposium, Open Data Week NYC and Austin Design Week.
About Commonplace
Commonplace is a founding sponsor of American Building. It is a 100% minority-owned, real estate technology company founded in 2020 to make financing social impact development projects across the US easier. It is funded by venture capital investors Hometeam Ventures, Park West Asset Management, New York Ventures and Shadow Ventures.
About Michael Graves
The world-famous design firm Michael Graves is also a founding sponsor of American Building. Its namesake, the iconoclastic designer Michael Graves, FAIA was a fierce advocate for people-centric design. His work defines a generation of American architecture and includes the Portland Building, the Humana Building and the Denver Public Library. The 1st season of American Building was filmed live at The Warehouse, his historic home in Princeton, New Jersey:
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